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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  August 6, 2013 10:00am-11:01am PDT

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congressman peter king on "morning joe." >> this one was so precise as to the nature of the attack, there were some dates that were given in there and the sources were so credible that to me there is no doubt -- >> all the threats overseas, no domestic -- >> no, no. no, i would not say that, no. it could be anywhere in the world. this as nbc confirms four al qaeda militants but not their leaders were killed in an american drone strike in yemen overnight. the peace brokers in egypt. senators john mccain and lindsey graham say they have not given up on brokering a solution to the standoff. >> if egypt fails and becomes a failed state, that is my worst nightmare. this is the heart and soul of the arab world. there are many in my country who believe democracy is not possible in the mideast. i disagree profoundly.
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heart scare. george w. bush, the president famous for his athletic lifestyle has undergone a heart procedure this morning to clear a blocked artery. the problem was found yesterday in a routine annual physical. we'll have the latest from dr. nancy snyderman. the end of the graham era. after 80 years as a family-run business, the grahams are selling "the washington post" to amazon's ceo jeff bezos seen here deal making at a media summit last month in sun valley. but can the king of dotcom save print? >> we knew we could keep the "post" alive. we knew it could survive. but our aspirations for the "post" have always been higher by that. >> this is going to shake things up. good day, i'm andrea
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mitchell in washington. nearly 100 u.s. government personnel flew out of yemen today on a c-17 air force cargo plane. leaving only a kel stal emergenskeletal emergency staff behind because of what the state department is calling the extremely high threat level. th all of this comes after the interception of al qaeda communications threatening major attacks on u.s. interests. joining me now from new york, nbc's ama, but richard, first to you. you just finished interviewing john mccain there in cairo. what is he saying about the situation in egypt and the threat level in neighboring yemen? >> reporter: i just left the senator a couple of minutes ago. i was afraid i wasn't going to get to your show in time. he said he is very concerned about what is going to happen in egypt. he thinks that unless there is some sort of reconciliation between the military which he
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believes did enact a coup against the muslim brotherhood government of mohamed morsi, that unless there is some sort of way to get people negotiating and finding a peaceful resolution that the muslim brotherhood could go underground, it could become more extreme and that there could become a long term insurgency in this problem which is something that i've heard from other more precise middle east analysts as well. so he's here, he says, to help try an bring the two sides together because he's worried that if they don't, the military will continue its crackdown on the muslim brotherhood and then egypt could go down a fairly long path of instability. >> richard, while you were rushing back and we so appreciate that, the embassy -- yemen embassy here in the states has issued a statement. i wanted to share this with you because you've spent so much time in yemen. it says while the government of yemen appreciates foreign governments' concern for the safety of their citizens, the
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evacuation of embassy staff serves the interests of the extremists and undermines the exceptional cooperation between yemen and the international alliance against terrorism." i think the point there, as you know better than anyone, is that the government of yemen doesn't control all of yemen, despite the cooperation. and the president of yemen was in the oval office with president obama only last friday emphasizing all of that. they've got a problem. richard? >> reporter: well, it actually leads to another point as well. certainly yemen doesn't want to get painted with the al qaeda brush. the yemeni government is trying very hard to cooperate with united states. in fact, the yemeni president was just at the white house and he's often attacked in the yemeni press for being too close to washington for allowing drone strikes to happen. so to see this mass exodus of people and all of this attention slamming yemen, it certainly is an embarrassment for him in the united states which is the one country where he feels like he's trying to make -- have good
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relations. but the other point i was making, i've been speaking, as we all have, to counterterrorism officials over the last several days. analysts and some of them, while they understand that this threat was real, they think it was credible, they think it was specific enough to be actionable, they think that a little bit of hyperbole is now starting to enter this whole discussion and that the u.s. reaction may have been a little bit draconian, may have started to snowball on to itself. one person i spoke to said that there were often directives given by osama bin laden when he was leading al qaeda. they weren't always followed and they didn't always trigger this kind of response. >> exactly. richard aeengel, thanks to you. there's been a higher threat level, a lot of extra security there but they're telling you this is unrelated to what is going on in the middle east and in north africa. >> it is, andrea. what we're hearing from former and current military and intelligence officials in pakistan is that although it is
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a separate incident that they're dealing with in pakistan, it is certainly when you take a step back and look at it parallel in many ways. over the weekend in islamabad the capital city of pakistan was shut down. we are told this was prompted by an intelligence intercept of communications, possibly between two taliban leaders, talking about a potential target attack in islamabad. maybe on a pakistani target though. not necessarily on american or international target. we're told that could have been navy force -- sorry. air force target or a navy installation or even an intelligence office in or around the capital. what you saw was an unprecedented security effort. there were these security teams and commando teams that descended upon the capital city. they set up security cordons, checking i.d.s, launching search operations in the hills that surround the northern part of the city. at the very least what it speaks to is that when this kind of intelligence is intercepts, there's enough of a concern at
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least on the ground in pakistan that the taliban, which of course is an al qaeda affiliate and ally organization, has the capability still to carry out the attacks that they have to take those kind of steps. all those security steps, by the way, are still in place and are expected to stay in place through the end of the week. >> very good to see you and have your reporting. thank you very much. for more on the overall threat level, i'm joined by our former u.n. ambassador, ambassador to moscow under secretary of state and the co-chair of the official review board after the benghazi tragedy investigation. a lot of people are saying that if not for benghazi and failure after rapid response force and all the other failures you and admiral mullen co-authored in discovering the investigation that you did, that perhaps this response would not have been quite as dramatic. >> i think the government will have to answer that. we made 29 recommendations. they were all very serious. some of them had had to do
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obviously with staying up with events and responding in anticipation of events. perhaps that's been happening. some of them had to do obviously about continuing to evaluate and take risks. and that may not be happening now, or it may be that the risk is too great. i'm a little worried that we're now identifying intelligence sources and methods. the last time we did this we lost sight of osama bin laden for a long time. >> you think we're talking too much. >> we may be talking too much about intercepts. >> but their point is that they want to publicize this and try to disrupt -- >> yes, and i know government credibility is low but the ability to say that we have credible intelligence sources is a little different than identifying exactly what. this will now drive them to couriers, which were what led us to osama bin laden but were very hard to find and they're very hard to find discrete information from unless you compromise the courier. so this is a different situation. our intelligence experts will have to respond to it.
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but i wondered a little bit about all of the open talk here. >> you know the embassy security situation. we have a number of consulates and embassies that are not well defended. they are remaining closed. baghdad and kabul which were virtually fortresses have been reopened. but you can't put enough marines and you can't build enough walls to make these embassies safe. >> nor can you stay home in the compound for all time and still do your job effectively. everyone of these reps a degradation of our capacity and that's important. the ability to protect and take risks is in fact what the benghazi report is all about and it is not one way or the other. hopefully in fact the judgment is good. it seems to me good. the notion of closing for a week, while it is perhaps a little bit unusual, is not so terrible. what's difficult is closing for a month or closing for a year or
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closing forever. we need to avoid that. while at the same time we obviously have to continue to put in context what we're seeing. there were beginnings of reports that you just heard that maybe this one is overreacted to. we'll have to wait and see. here i believe it is important to respect the judgment of the experts insofar as we've come. >> i'm told that on your other hat, were you the ambassador in moscow, that the u.s. is now going to go ahead with high-level talks in washington. but i'm told that they are going to announce some time in the next couple of days that the president will not have his bilateral meeting one-on-one with vladimir putin in moscow as scheduled for early september. he'll go to the g-20 in st. pete petersburg because why invest in that kind of diplomacy when you have edward snowden having been given asylum, putin is pushing
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back not giving any cooperation with assad and the nuclear threats. is that a degradation of our relationship or acknowledgement? >> the essential meeting is between president obama and president putin. that's probably reason why they're sending the message. president putin inherited a little bit after hot potato when he got snowden. president putin i think made the wrong judgment with his hot potato. i think he should have sent him out to us, if he couldn't send him out, send him to somebody who could sen hd him to us if h didn't want to take the program on in russia, or he can still send him out and i think it is important for him to do it. we're trying to maintain a modicum of relationship with the russians. if in fact what you say takes place, as king solomon once said about a tough decision, dividing the baby.
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this is never good but it's better perhaps than going all the way and cutting off all current relationship with the russians of importance because they can play an important role in iran. they continue to help us up to a point in iran. they're part of the negotiating effort in iran. over a period of time they worked with secretary kerry on setting up a conference. i understand the impediment to that conference is not on the russian side. it happens to be with the opposition which is very divided over the issue. one can understand that but at the same time that's not something i would put on the back of the russians. they are supporting president assad. they have said so. but they've begun to open a door in a political way that we need to take more time and attention to take care of. i was pleased that secretary kerry was able to open the door there. so we had the usual with the russians, a kind of mixed enterprise. we have some hopes in the future of further disarmament negotiations which i think can
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further add to the positive spin. that's something we ought to keep open and keep alive and that's why at the moment if it looks like the two presidential talks will not take place, i regret it because they were the launching pad for that kind of forward progress. >> ambassador thomas pickering, thank you very much. coming up next, we learned today that former president george w. bush underwent a procedure this morning to insert a stent after a major artery blockage was discovered at his routine check-up yesterday. dr. nancy snyderman joining us after the break. more on that procedure. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] this is bob, a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. i don't think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but not anymore.
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president george w. bush is recovering in dallas today after undergoing a procedure to get a heart stent this morning. doctors discovered a blocked
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artery during the former president's annual physical and they recommended inserting a stent to open it up. a spokesman for the 67-year-old bush said the procedure went well and described him as being in high spirits and eager to return home. bush 43 is expected to be released from the hospital tomorrow. the former president's daughter, nbc's own jenna bush hager, thanked her father's well wishers on twitter saying we're eager for him to return to grandpa duty. with a very cute picture. nbc news chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman takes time out to join us from new york. >> hey, andrea. >> take us through this. i think a lot of people are so used to seeing george bush 43 as so athletic out there on the mountain bike and so young, relatively young. it's quite surprising given how thin he is. >> it is a real reminder we sort of pay the piper for the life we lived previously and it's possibly that the cheeseburgers and steaks caught up with him. you know him as a vibrant hiker and runner and obviously he is in very good health but on a
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routine examination at the cooper clinic he was found to have an abnormality. we don't know what that was, whether they saw a change in the heart tracing or whether he really had pain or discomfort when he was undergoing a stress test. but either way his doctors suggested that he have a stent put in to one of the coronary arteries that sends blood to the heart muscle. there are about 600,000 of these done a year. he's now become sort of very typical with being sounds like it's all gone well, they're going to keep him overnight for observation and he should go home tomorrow morning. >> it's all good news also on george bush 41. we saw him recently. he was released from the hospital after that holiday period for thanksgiving through christmas where he was hospitalized with all sorts of chest concerns. so good news all around for the bush family and thank you, dr. nancy. >> you bet. >> thanks very much for that update. shockwaves reverberated through the news business with word that the legendary graham family is selling "the washington post" to amazon.com crow and billionaire jeff bezos,
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an acknowledgement that an iconic paper cannot turn a profit in its current form. buyer around seller both say that the values of "washington post" journalism will not change. is that possible? joining me now for our daily fix, veteran "washington pos post" -- chris cillizza will join us in a moment but ruth marcus is here with us at the table. thank you for being with us. "washington post" columnist. were you in the meeting yesterday? >> i was listening in on the conference call. we got a sort of company. wide alert. i think everybody's guess was that the building was going to be sold because it's been on the black and there was an announcement about where we were going to be moving. no one that i know expected this absolutely stunning news that the post was being sold. >> i read that david ignatius, one of our friends and colleagues, some of the old-timers, were weepy about it. i personally felt it having
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known kay graham and all the grahams and know how big a sacrifice this really is for donald graham and katherine weymouth to make this decision, as hard as they tried to turn a profit on the print business. >> i think you used a phenomenally accurate word, which is sacrifice. of i've had the privilege of working for the grahams for 30 of the 80 years. they've been at the helm of the "post" and this is something that i am convinced they are doing because they think it is in the long-term interests of the newspaper and it is survival and it's survival in a vibrant form that we all want to see it in, not in their personal self-interests. and so we all need to keep our fingers crossed that that's the right choice. >> we just saw a picture of katherine graham with ben bradley during the water gate era. chris cillizza joins us now as well. chris, this is tough. i know you have such an online presence, you understand the challenges of transformation for every newspaper. but this is one of the last --
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well, last great family-owned pap paper. >> it's so funny. people have asked me in the last 12 hours -- and i heard ruth just talking about it -- well, did you know this was coming. i think i speak for almost everyone in the news room, the answer is no. when i started working here in 2005, the idea that the graham family wouldn't own "the washington post" was not something i thought about because i never thought it was possibly. you mention though and kra, i think that this was ultimately a generous decision by the graham family. ruth mentioned this. i think i trust don graham with as much as any person who's not an immediate member of my family to make decisions that are in the best interests of this place and i think in choosing jeff bezos, i think it was a generous attempt by the graham family to
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say this is the best way for the journalism that this company became a major national newspaper on for that sort of journalism, whether it is in print, online, wherever it is, for that kind of journalism to continue to succeed. i think it is a sad day because it is the end of an era. i think it can be an exciting time, too. but, look. i don't think you're going to see the likes of a graham family again. >> let me just say, just on a personal note, i was talking to one of your colleagues, a veteran war correspondent for the "post," and he said that he went into war zones knowing that if he of ever got kidnapped, don graham would get him out. the personal connection between people who work at this newspaper and donald graham and his mother before that, and the publisher now, i mean it is a very important connection. just on a very personal note, ruth and chris, i came to washington from philadelphia to work for post news week
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broadcasting for the local then "washington post"-owned cbs affiliated station here in washington, d.c. and when they -- i had an agreement with the owner that if they ended up selling the station here, which they ended up doing anticipating a supreme court decision on cross ownership of media concentration that never happened, when they ended up selling to a detroit station, detroit owner, they let me out of my contract just on a handshake because -- to come to nbc. 35 years ago. because i came under the understanding that i would only work for the graham family. that was how close the connection was, ruth. >> i think all of us have that -- who have been around for a while any way, interest that personal connection with the graham family. i have a column that should be on washingtonpost.com later this afternoon talking a little bit about that personal connection. and that is why i think in the newsroom and to some degree
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outside there is trust in this decision, that it is in the "washington post's" best interests because we've had so many years of seeing the graham family make decisions that were in the "washington post's" best interests. and, you know, but it is also you talk about the impact on you. i started to get calls yesterday and e-mails from government officials, from my children, from friends, from family, saying we're stunned, we're reeling, it really is the sort of earthquake moment in the life of the capital. >> it is a washington monument and it is also a very big business story, to be continued. the sale is supposed to take place within 60 days. ruth marcus, chris cillizza, thank you all very much. in a second news conference as iran's president in as many
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days, row hhani says he wants t u.s. to lift sanctions for negotiations to resume. well, that's not going to happen. president rowhani was asked about engaging with the u.s. and he answered, "the u.s. has sent "conflicting messages." he went on to say there are groups in the u.s. that applied what he called unnecessary pressure and are pro-war and anti-dialogue. seems to be a reference to israel so this is not going to dissipate very quickly. we'll be right back. this is the one i was telling you about. the new samsung galaxy s 4. it's got a front and back camera so you can take pictures at the same time. seriously! yeah - and it's on verizon's network. sweet! we can stay in touch when we go to school next year. that's so great! get the samsung galaxy s 4 for only $148 on verizon - america's largest 4g lte network. walmart.
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oh, yeah, sorry! let's get ready to bundle and save. now, that's progressive. oh, i think i broke my spleen! home insurance provided and serviced by third party insurers. the state department has scaled back diplomatic operations throughout much of the muslim world to an unprecedented degree, but how long can it maintain this level of alert? and what steps are the counterterror experts taking to disrupt and prevent future attack? joining me now, jeremy bash who served as chief of staff to former secretary of defense leon panetta and also chief of staff at the cia. you were there during benghazi last september 11th. you know what a state
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department -- an embassy under siege is like and not having the rapid response force. what are they trying to do now by being so public and out front? >> well, great to be back here, andrea. i think our national security professionals are doing three things at this hour. first, publicizing the threat to take away the element of surprise by the al qaeda elements in yemen that apply. second is they are hardening the embassies and facilities and putting forces in the region on high alert. and perhaps most importantly, we're going forward very aggressively with kinetic separations to disrupt the plot. this is the most important part. if you look at all the big plots over the last four years, whether by mehsud in 2009 with the radiological spot or the plot in 2011 with the not against europe. in all of those cases the plot ended only when we removed them from the battlefield. only when they were gone. >> we're talking about drone attacks then. >> not just drone attacks.
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the bin laden operation was a heli born assault deep into pakistan. it is a combination of many different operations both intelligence and military. >> they don't know where are zawahiri is. they know general regions, perhaps. they do know where with a she she is. yes, ma'amen is not as vast and as difficult a territory as pakistan, travel areas, or am i wrong about that? >> i think yes, ma'amen is very vast and many parts are not governed and our networks ond our information is much more robust in pakistan. we've been at that for a long time. though the yemen plot and yemen network, though it's been stronger in the past years does go back a while. it was a yemen attack in 2000 against the "cole" in the port of adi aden. >> do you agree with the assessment that yemen is now
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operationally the most serious al qaeda fringe -- >> absolutely. it the the most serious element of al qaeda. it launched the christmas day attack in 2009. it attempted the cargo plot in 2010. again, those plots were not really disrupted and that network was not disrupted until awlaki was removed from the scene. >> they have the most sophisticated bombmaker who sent his own brother to kill -- >> that was a very sophisticated liquid bomb plot against mohammed benai in '09. it was a bomb designed to evade any kind of protection. that's the same thing as the underwear bomber used on christmas day. tomorrow is the 15th anniversary of the 1998 bombings against our embassies in tanzania and nairobi, kenya. we lost 250 or so individuals.
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4,500 in wounded. 12 american souls were lost on that day. that began the tit for tat, if will you, with al qaeda. we launched attacks against bin laden's network and in southeast asia they spun off with the cole attack, then the 9/11 attacks. we invaded afghanistan, drove them into pakistan. we've decimated their core and now they are trying to come back in yemen. >> jeremy bash, thanks very much for your experience. coming up, the latest on a-rod's pending punishment from major league baseball. he got a cold reception in chicago last night. the late night comics took a few swings at the yankee slugger. >> both players got 50-game suspensions. a-rod is suspended for 211 games. but it an odd number but that's what they calculated his batting average would have been without the drugs. >> mlb baseball suspended him a total of 211 games. otherwise known as what a single baseball game feels like.
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alex rodriguez. >> white sox fans monday night spoke for baseball fans everywhere jeering a-rod as he took the field after being suspended for illegal drug use and allegedly obstructing the investigation. a-rod responded to what he called the fight of his life with a 1 for 4 night singling in the second inning of the yankees' loss. what do some of the pioneers in baseball think should happen to
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cheaters this our own chuck todd sat down with some of these sports greats, the legends, former negro league and major league players at the white house monday and got their take. >> you would not know -- bonds, clemmons -- >> i would not either. >> i would not expect nobody. >> they made their money, they got their fame at the time but -- >> and when actually he's just cheating. you didn't perform as an athlete. you performed under the influences of something. okay? and that's what -- you don't have the natural ability and so why should you be aside guys lie babe ruth? >> chuck todd is political director and host of "the daily rundown." wow. that was pretty cool. >> they were invited there. this is the second event over the last couple weeks, the president has met with some pioneers where african-american
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pioneers in sports. met with a famous college basketball team that helped a white university of mississippi team play their first game against african-americans. this of course meeting with some living negro leaguers, the most famous of which is miniminoso. he played in the majors, ron tinsley had some minor league time. but what was interesting about the conversation when it turned to a-rod was this whole issue of these guys seem to have had it. and what's interesting now, you see current players saying the same thing. they're all like, you know what? clean this support up and they're not happy with a-rod heer either. >> tell me your impression of what's going on with this steroid -- first of all, what did they call a performance enhancing drug in your day? coffee? >> coffee. you lucky. and before, we're not making
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enough to maybe buy one bottle of dom perignon. i remember they used to be tough, people with alcohol and never in my life -- nothing to this day to my life. i never took drugs in my life. not even smoking. before allvy in my mind about how to play tomorrow and i haven't done anything before this game. >> well, i coached high school baseball for 20 years and i hate to think that any of my players would have had to enhance their skills that way because we all know that those p.e.d.s, performance enhancing drugs, are going to hurt you later in life. it is going to physically and also mentally. i think that these players did a lot of harm. >> for you to sit down with
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these greats and also we've all had the experience a lot of us of loving the movie "42" and the whole jackie robinson story. you talked to ron tinsley about the role of jackie robinson. cue that up. >> once jackie robinson was successful and moved up to the majors, we had had a lot of laws passed that encouraged the lot for african-americans considerably. we really were just so grateful that he was able to succeed as well as he did. >> it's just important to remember what jackie robinson went through. >> well, this whole -- one of the questions -- the question i'd asked him there, when the president flew -- when he went to the all star game and through out the first pitch the first year, willie mays was there on the air force one.
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willie mays, we said something like what's it like to filet on air force one. he brought up the fact here i am, flying on air force one, not just that, i'm flying with the first african-american president. he says it just means everything i went through made it worth it. everybody thinks the civil rights movement began sometimes in the '60s. in many ways it began in 1947 when jackie robinson and the negro leagues before that. that began the -- that once you integrated culture on the sports field, maybe in the way hollywood has done for gay americans in many ways, the sports field, it really sort of opened the door for a movement that was going to get accepted by white america. >> chuck, this was great. thank you so much. >> it was fun and coincidental with the a-rod stuff and getting their takes. it was good stuff. >> perfect timing. chuck todd. a new era for the pbs news hour. gwen ifill and judy woodruff will be taking over the nightly newscast as co-anchors in september. this will put an end to the rotating anchor format of the
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last several years. eiffel and woodruff will also share the managing editor duties for the news craft. congratulations. both nbc grads. to fight chronic osteoarthritis pain. to fight chronic low back pain. to take action. to take the next step. today, you will know you did something for your pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a pain reliever fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. anti-depressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not for children under 18. people taking maois, linezolid or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for
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the military trial finally began today for nadal hassan, the army sopsychiatrist who oped fire at a medical processing center in ft. hood, texas. the rampage killed 13 soldiers and injured dozens more. this morning he said he was the shooter, apoll guysing for any mistak mistake i made in "trying to establish the perfect religion." he will act as his own attorney. he could end up cross examining some of the witnesses he is accused of shooting, cuincludina retired army staff sergeant who was shot seven times. >> i will not show fear in the face of the enemy because the man that shot me major hassan is
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going to be the man who's cross examining me. that's a huge challenge. >> correspondent in npr's investigations unit knows this case far better than any of us. what's the significance of this trial and of what it means not only the terror war but also personally for these victims? >> imagine if, god forbid, were you one of natal hassan's victims. in addition to the 13 who were killed, some have brain damage, some have partially paralyzed. they will have a lifetime of pain and imagine now that you go into this courtroom at ft. hood and the man who shot you approaches you, looks you in the eye and starts asking you questions and you have to say yes, sir, no, sir. that's what i keep trying to get in my mind and i can't wrap my brain around that. >> some of his victims say they've had problems with the va, problems getting their treatment, yet he is still, if
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i'm correct, on salary? until convicted? >> he's received $300,000 since the shootings. you're innocent until proven guilty but one of the bizarre things about this whole trial is that nadal hassan has never denied that he was the shooter. in fact he tried throughout the hearings over the months to take credit for doing the shootings and in june he was upset because he -- the judge said you can't tell the prospective jurors that you shot those people and nadal h hassan wanted to plead guilty and they would not allow him. under military law if you have the chance of being sentenced to death you can't plead innocent. one of the things people are forgetting about this whole case is the fact that years before the ft. hood rampage, people who worked with him and supervised him at walter reed where he was a psychiatrist, some of them had serious concerns about this guy. they had conversations actually in the year before ft. hood where they wondered could nadal
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hassan be psychotic. one of his supervisors actually wondered outloud to his colleagues, do we think nadal hassan could commit fratricide? that's of course when a soldier shoots a fellow soldier. meanwhile, the fbi, nadal hassan popped up on their radar. remember, they were spying on the radical muslim cleric anwar ael al awlaki. there's this army psychiatrist writing e-mails back and forth with awlaki asking had him what do you think about a soldier killing a fellow soldier, what do you think about killing innocents -- >> they let this get away from them. this brings us all the way back to yemen, al awlaki having been taken out by a drone strike, a very controversial killing presumably because of his u.s. citizenship. how did this get through the cracks? >> there are some very -- there are some understandable ways it fell through the cracks and some
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puzzling ways. i've talked a lot with people at walter reed that worked with and supervised nadal hassan. some genuinely thought this guy could and valuable asset if he straightens out. he's a muslim psychiatrist. that would be very valuable in the u.s. army. some thought if we can just work with him a little bit harder we can get him to be a good psychiatrist because his evaluations for six years had been terrible. supervisor said he was unprofessional. he tried to proselytize to vulnerable mental health patients. he told him islam can save your soul which is a huge taboo in mental health to proselytize. he they thought he was paranoid and belligerent but some people thought maybe we can turn him around. noernd, some supervisors also thought, if we get rid of the only muslim psychiatrist we've got here, we can be in a long messy legal battle. let's pass him on and let ft. hood deal with him.
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>> political correctness run amok and tragedy ensues. thanks for your expertise on this. which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." doub. but, dad, you've got... [ voice of dennis ] allstate. with accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. are you in good hands? to appreciate our powerful, easy-to-use platform. no, thank you. we know you're always looking for the best fill price. and walk limit automatically tries to find it for you. just set your start and end price. and let it do its thing. wow, more fan mail. hey ray, my uncle wanted to say thanks for idea hub. o well tell him i said you're welcome. he loves how he can click on it and get specific actionable trade ideas with their probabilities throughout the day. yea, and these ideas are across the board -- bullish, bearish and neutral. i think you need a bigger desk, pal. another one? traders love our trading patterns,
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so which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? chris, the president is on the road again. going to be in phoenix, which was the ground zero, really, for the housing crisis. he's going to propose something that has bipartisan support, reducing the government risk in fannie and freddie and basically making it -- getting rid of that implicit mortgage guarantee, the bailout guarantee, making it private investors. >> absolutely. look, i think, andrea, trying to prevent what happened in places like phoenix and las vegas, nevada, in the future. you mentioned bipartisan support. what i'm interested to see is whether the proposal goes anywhere. bipartisan support does not guarantee it. makes it more likely, i suppose,
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but in the current environment we're in, does not guarantee it. president obama heading from phoenix further west to los angeles, where he will be taping with jay leno this evening. so i look forward to both. >> well, and in fact, on jay leno, that'll be the first chance, unless he speaks off the cuff in phoenix, this will be the first chance that anyone has had to ask a question about the threat level. leno has proved in the past he can ask a tough question when, you know, the news cycle demands. >> and i think, you know, this is true. i think we tepid to think, well, it's late night, it'll be fun and light. plenty of it will be fun and light, but to your point, my guess is that this will come up, probably in the front end of the interview. but it will come up. i'd be certain the president is ready to say something. as you point out, we haven't heard anything publicly from him off the cuff since the announcements. >> and to your point, also, about the fact that it's
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bipartisan doesn't guarantee anything, he proposed a corporate tax cut, and that landed with a thud in republican circles, even though they've been long proposing it themselves. thank you very much. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports" on a tuesday. tomorrow on the show, the wilson center's robin wright. a lot to talk about. remember, follow the show online and on twitter. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> hi, andrea. thank you. in our next hour, outrage as opening statements begin in the long-delayed trial of ft. hood shooter nadal hasan. it's already cost taxpayers millions of dollars despite him saying today that the evidence will, quote, clearly show i'm the shooter. those were his words today. plus, an update on the terror threat that forced u.s. personnel out of yemen. we'll have more on how officials uncovered the al qaeda plot. and a hard breaking end to a story that touched so many people, including myself.
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the 2-year-old known as the world's youngest best man, has passed away after serving in his parents' wedding last week. how his parents are remembering him today. it's next on "news nation." i'm only in my 60's... i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide.
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tell your doctor your medical history. and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. right now on "news nation," now details on the dramatic evacuation of u.s. personnel in yemen as we find out more about the terror threat that led to the closing of more than a dozen embassies. emergency procedure. president george w. bush in the hospital after a blockage is found in an artery. plus, a heart-breaking end to a story that touched so many. the toddler known as the littlest best man has passed away. how his parents are remembering him today. but first, the "news nation" is following the buildi ining outrage as the trial of major nadal hasan gets underway in texas.
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during opening statements a couple hours ago, witnesses and victims inside that courtroom heard from hasan himself, who is acting as his own attorney. during his two-minute statement, hasan said, quote, the evidence will clearly show that i am the shooter. he also told jurors, witnesses will testify that war is an ugly thing. death, destruction, and devastation are felt from both sides, from friend and foe. evidence from this trial will only show one side. i was on the wrong side, but i switched sides. adding to an already charged situation is the fact that since he is his own attorney, hasan will get to cross-examine witnesses, many of whom are the very people he's accused of gunning down. and hasan's defense is coming with a hefty price tag for taxpayers. he has to be flown by helicopter for the 20-mile journey between the bell county jail and ft. hood. he has to be taken nearly every day to a special facility to work on his case. also, since his arrest, he's been paid nearly